Owl City’s music is most frequently described as electronica, but to call it that not only minimizes it to just one element of its broad amalgamation but misses virtually all of its important elements.

The show that Owl City presented Saturday at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia not only had far more in common with symphonic classical music than electronica, but was relentlessly uplifting and offered unflagging optimism – neither of which is ever associated with electronic.

Owl City

In addition, his lyrics were witty, interesting, touching and intelligent, and conveyed a real message – something rarely found in virtually any form of music today.

And the music just sounded important. Maybe that’s because Owl City, backed by a five-person band, gave an intense and energetic performance, to boot.

Before a smallish crowd of likely less than 5,000, the singer (real name: Adam Young) played an hour and 40 minutes, doing 21 songs equally divided between his platinum 2009 major label debut “Ocean Eyes” and “All things Bright and Beautiful,” released June 14.

He opened with the new disc’s “The Real World,” the stage bathed in orange lights as – dressed in a long suit coat, vest and white tie – he sang amid the symphonic, spacey drums and violins. For the second song, “Tip of the Iceberg,” he asked the audience to put its hands in the air, and they quickly complied.

(Then again, this was a crowd so into Owl City that it cheered when, before the show, a scene of blue skies and clouds was lowered as a backdrop, and saw a shirtless fan jump up and run around stage on “Cave In.”)

Throughout the show, the songs were tied closely together, with only an occasional few short words from Young. (Example; “Philly, tell me how you’re feeling,” to which the response was, of course, a loud cheer, or “It’s just so magical.”)

Instead, the show had the feel of a classical orchestra. And, indeed, the music was as important as the singing: One song was fully instrumental, as was the full first half of the eight-minute “Umbrella Beach.” And conversely, Young’s voice was as much an instrument, often soaring and echo-y.

But he occasionally crossed into pure pop, as well, as he did with “The Bird and the Worm.”

But while most of Owl City’s lyrics are celebrations of innocence, discovery and fantasy, his second best of the night (more about the best later) was the new “The Honey and the Bee,” with its obvious subject of a relationship.

While still cute and endearing, with Young on acoustic guitar, it built and soared, with great vocals by background singer/keyboardist Breanne Düren.

And Owl City’s spiritual side was overt on a mid-show trio of songs. The great, new “Galaxies,” which started with a voice over of President Reagan’s speech about the astronauts in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion “touching the hand of God,” was overt, with its lyric: “He is the saving grace of the galaxies.”

The new “Angels,” also a great concert song, also spoke openly about its title subject. And the spirituality of “Meteor Shower” was palpable in the lyric “I desperately need you.” The audience apparently felt likewise, and cheered the songs.

But by “Hello Seattle” three-quarters into the show, the crowd was simply cheering non-stop – even for perhaps the night’s weakest song, “Plant Life.” But “Alligator Sky,” with Young “dueting” with a rapper projected on a screen, was very good.

And of course the highlight was a buoyant, six-minute version of his huge hit “Fireflies.”

“Let’s hear the heavenly voices,” Young told the crowd, and they sang loudly, with the drums and bells added to the song.

He closed the main part of the set with the new “The Yacht Club,” and after spending much of the night dancing in twirls or with a guitar, Young picked up his stool and swung it around as his violin player also danced around.

For the two-song encore, Young sang emphatically on “That’s How I Became the Sea” and closed with the slow “If My Heart Was a House.”

Opener Mat Kearney was almost as good, playing a 40-minute set of nine songs that all were – or should be – hits.

He opened with a pulsating “Fire and Rain” from his last album, 2009’s “City of Black & White” – one of four songs he did from that disc.

He sang his biggest hit, “Nothing Left to Lose,” second – rich, mournful and touching – and on “Undeniable” did his trademark freestyle rap about the location (he did the same thing at Allentown’s Mayfair festival in 2007), talking about Brotherly Love, Cherry Hill and “a big wood room”—The Mann.

Before “Breathe In Breathe Out,” he even did few bars of Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia.” A strong, soaring “Closer to Love,” with nice percussion and jangly guitars got the audience to clap above their heads, and for “Runaway Car” he came deep into the crowd to play and sing.

He played “All I Need,” made famous by its use on “Grey’s Anatomy,” on stark piano, bathed in blue light, as the song’s sound built. Like Owl City, Kearney’s voice conveys as much emotion with its sound as it does with words.

He closed with his new single, “Hey Mama,” from his forthcoming disc, “Young Love,” due Aug. 2.

Like Owl City, Kearney is far different, and far better, from most musical acts out there, and deserves to be a far bigger hit.

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.